Investing

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Let the children play

Shares of companies targeting children as their core market have traditionally been seen as safe bets anchored in evergreen demand. After all, parents rarely cut back when it comes to spending on their children. No price is too high, it seems, if it might lead to a medal, a scholarship or a head start in life.

But cashing in on kids is no walk in the park, as some Singapore-listed companies have discovered. Even for a segment regarded as emotionally resilient and economically stable, the lesson for these firms is clear: chasing tiny consumers can come with outsized challenges.

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Brilliant but broke: Why not all good business ideas pay off

Inspiration struck. That’s how many start-up stories begin — with the ambition for disruption and a messianic belief in the power of technology to redraw the boundaries of possibility. Apple began in a garage to transform personal computing; Google emerged from a Stanford dorm room to become the gateway to the internet. But clearly, not all good ideas end up as great businesses. The reason is simple: Ideas don’t exist in vacuo. Rather, they unfold within the specific constraints of industries, regulations and supply chains.

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Technology alone won’t save you — it takes vision and execution

With recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) pushing the technology into mainstream awareness — everywhere, all at once — one question looms large: What defines a true digital or AI success story? The importance of this question is underscored by the growing divide between digital and AI leaders and their peers: a 2024 McKinsey study reported that the spread between industry leaders and laggards has grown by 60% over the three-year study period.

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Tong’s Absolute Returns global portfolio is up 25.6% in 15 months despite 24% in cash

The Absolute Returns Portfolio has performed well since its inception a little over a year ago, in March 2024, with total portfolio returns now at 25.6%. Throughout the better part of this period, the portfolio has been overweight US equities, for obvious reasons — US corporate earnings and share prices have outperformed the rest of the world in the past decade.

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CPF LIFE payouts recognised as retirees’ proof of payment when applying for DBS & POSB credit cards from June 11

Seniors aged 65 and above can apply for any DBS or POSB credit card using their CPF LIFE payouts as income proof from June 11 onwards.

DBS would be the first bank to formally recognise CPF LIFE payouts as income when assessing credit card applications, meaning that the payouts are on par with other typical income proofs when assessing retirees’ ability to repay loans, the bank announced on June 10.

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Great Chinese consumer tech stocks are systemically undervalued

Followers of Tong’s Absolute Returns Portfolio would recall that we recently pared our exposure to US stocks. As we have written previously, even as US inflation rates declined from the 2021/22 highs, they will not return to pre-pandemic lows but will stay higher for longer with the reshuffling of global supply chains and accelerating deglobalisation. This means that interest rates too will not return to the lows of the past decade.

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Edvantage: China-based undervalued private education play

About four years ago, the Chinese government clamped down on the private tutoring industry, which banned the provision of for-profit tutoring for subjects taught in school curricula.

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The coming of a perfect financial storm?

Like others, we had written extensively on US President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) goals on at least four occasions in the past three months alone (scan the QR codes below to read three of the articles). This article is another, but with a major twist.

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